Well, precisely one week has passed since the last update, and that can only mean one thing:

Weekly Labrador update #6!

As you’ve probably noticed, the campaign is over, and it raised well above the \$9000 target - a smidge over \$15,000, in fact - even including declined credit cards. About \$3000 of this came in the last couple of days.

And, again, it must be stated that it was you - yes, you - who all pitched in to make this happen. Once again, thanks!

The last update involved health concerns - with half my face going numb and these weird lumps appearing on my neck. I had a biopsy performed and it turned out to simply be a viral infection making its last stand. The facial numbness was a lymph node pressing against my facial nerve. Not lymphoma, not a killer infection - just some weird Vietnamese fever and a DC offset applied to part of my nervous system. Doesn’t look like I’ll be dead or disabled until well after Labrador’s development is complete. So that’s good too.

In an older update I mentioned I’d sent off a prototype board to a local blogger in order to be reviewed. His review is now complete.

It’s worth mentioning that the content was not sponsored in any way (the only compensation he received was the board itself) and I did not review the video prior to uploading. I did, however, keep in contact with him for a month straight and responded to almost every piece of criticism with a software update directly addressing the issue. Looks like that strategy paid off; his review was pretty positive!

This brings us around to the elephant in the room (brrrh!): when is everyone going to get their stuff? Those who chose the “Shape the Development” pledge should have received an email explaining when the boards will be sent out (Tuesday) and how long shipping will take. If not, please contact me.

The testing phase that follows will probably continue until a month from now, meaning that mass production can begin in mid-late November. This will mean that the final versions will ship out to everyone in December (if there are no major problems, of course). Fingers crossed!

An update showing off what things look like will be posted soon. I’ve been working hard moving the software from Windows to Linux/OSX and it’s rock-solid stable now. But for now, this update is long enough.

If you have any questions or comments, please shoot me an email.

And thanks once again

-Chris